Program Development Plan
DRAFT
Program:
Philosophy and Religion (PAR)
DRAFT
Department: Philosophy and Religion
Date: TBD
Strengths: The PAR program …
 offers a strong and rich curriculum that thoughtfully balances serving the needs of its undergraduate majors and those of the larger
student body
 has a strong faculty, including not only a talented and highly collegial group of tenured and tenure-track faculty but a dedicated
if under-supported group of adjuncts
 The review team thinks highly of the basic structure of PAR’s new plan to assess the major, the model of having bookend seminars
for majors, is a national best practice and should prove an excellent structure
 faculty, individually, have done an admirable job of seeking external support for their research and endeavors
Recommendations
Resources needed
C = current
R = reallocation
N = new
Strategic Action
Costs
Person(s)
Responsible
Date of
Review
A. Curriculum
1. The administration is urged to
recognize the importance of PAR’s
adjunct faculty in supporting PAR
majors with a religion concentration.
(P. 6, R1)
2. Create more major-only course options
for students through its newly
introduced sophomore and capstone
seminars.
Given the philosophy
degrees of the present
PAR faculty, PAR
needs adjuncts to
support the 2/3 of our
PAR majors who are
Religion majors.
Administration
PAR created those
courses this year.
Current
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
(P. 6, R2)
Philosophy and Religion
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Academic Affairs
DRAFT
Recommendations
3. Department should follow through on
its plans to develop a pre-law track.
(P. 6, O1)
4. There is a significant opportunity for
the expansion of PAR’s footprint on
campus, as well as the continued reimagining of philosophy as a
discipline pertinent to contemporary
and practical academic discourses,
through Arts & Sciences’ Humanities
Program.
Program Development Plan
Resources needed
C = current
R = reallocation
N = new
Strategic Action
PAR will propose a
pre-law concentration
in 2011-12.
DRAFT
Costs
Person(s)
Responsible
Date of
Review
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
PAR will begin to run
the Humanities
Program.
Current
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
PAR will offer new
religion courses as
Special Topics.
Current
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
(P. 6, O2)
5. With a long-term adjunct having her
specialization in Native American
religions, there is not only an
opportunity to offer courses covering
the neighboring Cherokee peoples but
also to extend courses in the area of
environmental studies from the
philosophical to the religious side of
the curriculum (even possibly ecofeminism).
(P. 6, O3)
Philosophy and Religion
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Academic Affairs
DRAFT
Recommendations
6. A number of untapped curricular
opportunities in the area of religion
could be addressed, in particular
courses in specific religions.
Program Development Plan
Resources needed
C = current
R = reallocation
N = new
Strategic Action
PAR will offer new
religion courses as
Special Topics.
Current
DRAFT
Costs
Person(s)
Responsible
Date of
Review
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
(P. 6, O4)
B. Faculty
7. The area of specialization of the next
tenure-track faculty should be women
in religion/feminism/ecology (in line
with PAR faculty desire).
Hire a new faculty
member with a
specialization in
religion.
(P. 7, R1)
8. At least one or two offices should be
dedicated to PAR’s adjunct faculty.
(P. 7, R2)
9. There is an opportunity to diversify
PAR’s tenure and tenure-track faculty,
especially in area of religion.
If PAR has adjuncts,
we would like an
office for them in
Stillwell.
See Strategic action
#7.
(P. 8, O1)
10. A model of a visiting professorship in
which a scholar resides in the
department for an academic year might
fit the current needs of PAR particularly
well.
[no funding
available?]
(P. 8, O2)
C. Assessment
Philosophy and Religion
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Academic Affairs
DRAFT
Recommendations
11. The department needs to work to further
refine the rubrics it proposes to use in
PAR 295 and 495.
Program Development Plan
Resources needed
C = current
R = reallocation
N = new
Strategic Action
DRAFT
Costs
Person(s)
Responsible
The PAR faculty will
further refine its
assessment rubrics.
Current
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
The PAR assessment
committee will review
and evaluate student
materials in PAR 295
and 495.
Current
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
Date of
Review
(P. 8, R1)
12. Introduce the use of an assessment
committee constituted by a cross section
of departmental faculty to annually
consider a sample of papers, tests, or
other student materials from the entry
and capstone seminars and individually
scores the work by means of the rubrics
discussed above.
(P. 8, R2)
13. Develop a plan for assessing the
attainment of general education learning
outcomes in all lower-level offerings
satisfying WCU graduation
requirements.
(P. 8, R3)
14. Present collected data and findings at
the regional meetings of the APA and
the national and regional meetings of
the AAR (thus making important
contributions to the understanding of
assessment in philosophy and religion).
PAR will cooperate
with the university’s
programs for assessing
general education
courses.
PAR will look for
opportunities to
present scholarship on
teaching and learning.
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
(P. 9, O1)
D. Advancing the Department through Funding and Promotion
Philosophy and Religion
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Academic Affairs
DRAFT
Recommendations
Program Development Plan
Resources needed
C = current
R = reallocation
N = new
Strategic Action
DRAFT
Costs
Person(s)
Responsible
Date of
Review
15. There are opportunities for the faculty to
become engaged with the national
efforts and research of the American
Association of Colleges and
Universities (AAC&U), which has
spear-headed the introduction and
implementation of the LEAP outcomes
for undergraduate education.
(P. 9, O1)
16. Promote some of the existing and
planned programs—the Washington
D.C. service-learning program, the
contributions to Liberal Arts and
Humanities, the proposed pre-law
track—on the website, through
brochures, via campus forums and
hosted panels.
PAR will promote our
programs in those
forums.
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
PAR will consider
creating this board for
community outreach.
Kevin Schilbrack
(PAR DH)
(P. 9, O2)
17. Consider creating an advisory “board of
visitors” from outside of WCU.
(P. 9, O2)
Philosophy and Religion
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Academic Affairs